It had been an average day in the hub and Gwen had been off nearly an hour ago in some attempt to keep a nine to five life. Jack and Ianto came nowhere near living a normal life, Torchwood having long ago consumed most of their time. They had been alone in the hub, surprisingly working, when the rift monitor had blared to life, announcing a large spike in activity. Neither hesitated, grabbing the address, their coats and the car keys and they were in the SUV within minutes. As soon as they got on the road Ianto called Gwen, giving her the co-ordinates and telling her to meet them there. The source wasn't far and it took no more then ten minutes with Jack's driving. The man drove like a maniac but he was a surprisingly safe driver and though the Cardiff streets were slicked with rain Ianto only spent about half the time griping at anything he could in an effort to stabilize himself.
Oddly enough, most of the time it was artifacts that fell through the rift, and it was rare to see some giant alien tearing through the streets of Cardiff. Other then the orange man with four arms and a pincer for a mouth they had seen two weeks ago there hadn't been an actual alien in nearly a month.
Skidding to a halt outside the house that the spike had come from both tore from the black SUV, drawing guns and running up the darkened stoop to the house. What they couldn't see from the streets they saw now, the door had been blown clean off its hinges, long wooden splinters sprayed over the entryway and the metal hinges twisted and broken. The two exchanged a glance, both having realized there was no way this wasn't a alien. And something strong and destructive. Maybe scared or hurt.
Cautiously they entered the house, keeping close eye out for any movement. Jack signaled for Ianto to check the room to the right, going forwards into the kitchen himself. A woman was cowering under the counter, her arms raised protectively over her head, and her entire frame shivering.
Pain blossomed at the base of his skull and the world faded out.
He didn't know how long it was later when he woke up, but he was fairly sure that he hadn't died. His skull was aching and the world was fuzzy but he had a good idea that he had only been knocked out. The world around him was bright now and there was something blaring in background.
Sitting up, he clutched at his head and groaned, blinking and looking around. Gwen's face swam into focus and he looked up at her trying to convey his question without actually speaking. She smiled at him, but it was weak and he couldn't help the flare of panic that went through him.
"What happened?" He tried to sound firm but it just sound tired to him. Gwen looked over her shoulder where Jack could see the body of something long a reptilian, about the size of a large man. It was oozing a green ichor all over the wood flooring and it smelt a little like over ripened fruit. Jack grimaced.
"I came in to find it hunched over Ianto and he was bleeding pretty badly. I had to empty a round into the thing before it died and I think Ianto got a round in before it knocked him down." Gwen sounded both woried and apogetic at the same time and Jack felt dread pool in his stomach. "The woman who lives here called the ambulance. I kept them away from you but Ianto needed a doctor."
Imediatly Jack sat up completely, pushing away any remaining concussion related issues. Gwen grabbed his arm, helping him up and handed him the keys to the SUV. "Ianto had them." She explained and he nodded, ready to take off to the hospital. His eyes lingered over the alien corpse. "I've got it. Go." Jack nodded, trying not to look overly grateful and took off, bounding over the dead creature and carefully avoiding the wet pool of very red blood.
The trip to the hospital was longer then any he had taken in years and he felt every secound of it. He was sure he broke every trafic law that there was and that half the cops in the city would be glareing at him for it untill he started going grey. As was assumed that could be awhile.
When he finaly got the the parking lot he broke yet more laws, this time parking ones, the large SUV sure the be in the way where it was. Still he couldn't help it, all he could think of was Ianto dying alone, somewhere in a lonley hospital.
It took him a few minutes to find the desk to ask were Ianto was and then the woman wasn't very forthcoming with information. He flashed his Torchwood I.D., but unlike with the police they didn't roll over in the same way, in fact the elderly nurse watched him very carefully as if to deduce whether or not her was a threat to her hospital. Finally she cracked, telling him that his young lover was in surgery to repair the damage. Without so much as a thanks he took off, raceing up flights of stairs and down long pristine hallways till he finally found the double doors to the hall that the operating rooms were on. He tried the door, only to find it locked and he could hardly stand the thought of distracting the surgeons and somehow costing Ianto his life or his leg or anything. So, very agianst his nature, he hovered in the little waiting room, completly unable to do anything to help a person he cared so very deeply about.
Around him an elderly man sat, wringing his hands, and a mother and her young son sat together on a chair, the little boys head balanced on his mother chest, deeply asleep. It was very late now and the only surgeries happening were ones from emergancy situations. Ther had probably been a car accident or maybe someone had fallen. Then there was Ianto, mauled by a space alligator. He glanced at the doors again, willing them to open, and feeling remarkable useless.
The elderly man was watching him, and Jack felt far to anxious to smile at him. It was too worried to be charming.
"My wife's in there." The old man spoke to him in a gravely voice, deep lines etched into his forehead and around his mouth and eyes. "She tripped down the stairs. Broke a lot of bones and they think she punctured her lung. They don't think she'll make it." He sounded even older now, and Jack couldn't help but feel sorry for him. The haggered woman with the toddler looked over, studying them carefully.
"My brother's in there. He was out to get us a movie to watch and he was hit by a drunk driver. The driver didn't make it and my brother's in critical condition. I'm a single mother, my brother was helping me so much with Jeremy. I don't know what I would do with out him." The woman looked so tired and her son stirred a little, shifting the way he was laying. The elderly man laid a hand on her arm in sympathy.
"What about you young man? What loved one are you waiting for?" The old man was watching him with those old eyes that he saw in the mirror every day and whatever dismissal he'd been planing died.
"Ianto Jones, he was attacked by a mugger, I don't know what his condition is." The woman smiled at him and it took him awhile to realize that she wanted him to continue. He supposed that hearing about anything was betting the thinking about the fact that your loved one might have been dying behind those doors. Jack cast the doors another glance, hoping that they might open and save him from this waiting, but everything was that same wash of calm nothingness.
"I'm his boss, he was working when he was hurt." The answer was curt, and the young woman was about to speak up when a doctor appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. The double doors swung close behind him, and his hands were freshly pink with little rings around the wrists from where we had been wearing gloves. He looked them over before his eyes settled on the young woman, the look in his eyes cold and detached, one that Jack knew well. He suddenly felt pity and sadness well inside him and when the doctor called her away, he knew why. Not a minute later, her soft sobbing confirmed it, her son waking and joining his mom in her grief with a small cry. Jack doubted he understood what was going on, but even so young he recognized the distress well enough. The elderly man hunched over further in his chair and watched the door with some uncertainty, afraid of what he might hear when the doctor came to talk to him.
Ten minutes passed in silence between the old man and Jack. He watched the doors, and paced, he called Gwen and gave her instructions to do what she would have done anyways and avoided thinking about Ianto, that if he hadn't brought him with him that Ianto would be at home. If he hadn't left him alone that maybe none of this might happen and he definitely tried not to think of how large that pool of blood was and what that could mean. Finally he couldn't take it. Captain Jack Harkness was not a man who sat around. He cast a glace to the doors and then left in search of a nurces office. The many bends of the hallways were lost on him, and he felt like he was wandering aimlessly. A sign above him pointed him the right direction and finnaly he stumbled upon the nurses station. There were only two tired woman behind the counter and one middle aged man, and one raised an eyebrow impatiently to ask what is was he wanted.
"I was wondering what Ianto Jones's status was?" He tried to be polite but he was really at his wits end. She raised an eyebrow.
"And are you family?" Oh, not that again.
"I'm Torchwood." He was a little more curt now, but she nodded reluctantly and tapped away at her computer. It seemed like forever before she looked up.
"Was he just admitted? We only have the name on record, I don't have anything else yet." Jack could really have shot someone.
"He's in surgery now. He was mugged and rushed to emergency." He knew that his tone was have been fairly angry because a veritable storm cloud passed over her face and she closed up even more.
"Sir, could you please go waiting in the waiting area. A doctor will talk to you when we have news." She was angry now too and he slammed his hand down on the counter. The woman behind it hardly jumped.
"Sir! Go sit down! Torchwood or not, this is a Hospital! We will tell you when the surgery on Mr. Jones is complete!" She gestured sharply back down the hall and Jack tried to stare her down, hoping somehow she could tell him where Ianto was and how he was doing. "Someone will be by to talk with you at the nearest possible convenience." He had handled that badly, and he wasn't going to get anything from her. With a resigned nod, he walked away, hoping that when he got back Ianto would be out of surgery and well enough to have sex in the archives by tomorrow.
When he got back to the waiting room the old man was still sitting, and though he looked up when Jack came into view he mostly ignored the Captain. Jack finally sat down and watched the door, and for an hour he sat. The old man fell asleep and a new middle-aged couple came in after their daughter needed her stomached pumped, but they were gone quickly. All Jack could do was sit and wait and wait, wringing his hands. Finnaly a woman whom looked to Jack like a doctor, with grey around her temples and a sharp, pointed face, walked through the doors and searched around the waiting room. She easily zeroed in on Jack and walked confidently up to him.
"You the Torchwood guy who's been bothering the nurses?" She seemed very professional and intelligent, but Jack couldn't care less about anything like that. All he cared now was whether Ianto was okay. It seemed that the doctor picked up on this because she didn't comment further.
"Mr. Jones is going to be fine." Jack could feel ever part of him sing with relief. He didn't even vaguely listen to what she said next. All he could do was marvel that Ianto was fine and that he was going to be fine and that he wasn't dead.
Ianto was moved to a post-op room and Jack was allowed to, after flashing his Torchwood I.D. again, stay in Ianto's room. He sat in a small uncomfortable chair, watching his lover, hardly even listen when Gwen called to ask how Ianto was and to assure him that she would be around in the morning. He just marveled at the rise and fall of the young Welshman's chest.
He was awoke with sun streaming in the window by Ianto's voice, and he knew he's slept for at least an hour. His back hurt, but Ianto was okay and that was all that mattered.
"What happened?" Ianto looked odd wrapped in bandages. They were white and pristine, all along one arm and his side and around his forehead. Jack gave him a short version of the events and when the doctor hurried in he let her explain Ianto's condition, watching in the background. When the doctor told him them could leave a in a week if he healed right and hurried out Jack realized just how long he'd left the rift alone for. Grudgingly, he stood up to leave, ready to head back to he hub now that he knew that Ianto would be okay.
"Jack?" Ianto's voice, a little rough from the accumulated events, called him back. He turned around, but didn't speak and Ianto was watching him in some sort of puzzlement.
"Did you stay with me the entire time?" He sounded like that came as a shock and Jack was about the claim he would have done the same for any of his team when he realized that he wouldn't have. Instead he answered with a simple 'Yes'. Ianto smiled at him, making him look a little healthier.
"Thanks Jack." Jack couldn't help but smile back.
"You're welcome Ianto."
----------
Defiantly longest so far! Alright, sorry this is so late! I only got home four hours ago. Then my computer wouldn't open any files cause it got some virus, so I had to reboot, install a virus scanner cause my old one wasn't working, run the scanner, reboot again and then start typing this (from scratch cause I lost my notes) well another scanner is running so my computer is about half it's normal speed and won't play music. Plus this isn't beta-ed cause I can't get hold of mine! I'll probably re-post when I do get it beta-ed.
Oh yeah and I have a new theme now! The first one is 'Good Morning', the second 'Good Night', This is 'You're Welcome' and the next is 'Thank You'(Probably).
So, anyways I'm so sorry this is so late! Happy Canada day everyone! Review and alert please! The three R's! Read, aleRt, Review! It works. No one say anything.
Also, this chapter is dedicated to the only people who loved me enough to review! 'gothicHobbit08' and '.if i were real' you are my new favorite people.